Well, last couple of months I've been busy with the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion, but I'll save that for another day. The other thing I've been busy with is the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchet.
As a kid I grew up hearing a lot about these novels and how good they were, I never got round to reading them though! As a series of books though I must say coming into them so late, they are excellent! The use of language and the general writing style lends itself to being a fun and in some cases highly amusing read. I have nothing but high praise for the author and am finally understanding why so many people have enjoyed these books. I'm currently reading them in publication order so as to have a goal in sight and of the 38 novels I am on my 12th 'Witches Abroad'. Currently my favourite 2 are 'Guards Guards!' And 'Reaper Man'.
I am disappointed in myself for not having started this earlier in my life and highly recommend the books to anyone that can read! But as with all things I must issue a warning. The first two books can seem a little confusing and a little fast paced from most people's perspectives so my warning is stick with it, 'The Colour of Magic' and 'The Light Fantastic' are very good once you give them the chance.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Saturday, 8 September 2012
A New Affliction.
Well what can I say about the new design for Warlocks in World of Warcraft? They're now awesome! Each spec has its own resource in addition to Mana. Affliction has Soul Shards, something familiar with a twist. Demonology has Demonic Fury which allows quick changing between normal and Demon forms allowing you to multi dot with the unique dots available to each form. Destruction has burning embers which are a completely new addition.
In this post i'm going to discuss affliction as it has always been my ideal spec. As a foreword I'd just like to say that when I first logged into 5.0.4 I was a little overwhelmed at what I saw, most importantly where the hell was my shadowbolt that blizzard had forced me to use? After a short plough through my spell book I was even more confused all my spells had different names and where was my bane of doom? After frantically searching the screen for an answer I spied the core abilities tab. Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Malefic Grasp, Haunt and Drain Soul. What the heck is Malefic Grasp you might ask? Well it's a new shiny affliction only spell that deals damage while adding 50% of your DOTs damage on top for every tick while it's ticking. Haunt now increases your critical hit chance for its duration. Soul burn + Soul Swap applies all three dots in one hit. Demon Soul is now called Dark Soul: Misery which is an awesome buff that increases spell haste by 30% for 20 seconds (I hear a nerf bat coming, best enjoy it while we can!). Drain Soul should be used below 20% health on any opponent as it regenerates soul shards but also deals 200% damage and an additional 100% damage to your DOTs that are on the target, did anyone ask for an execute spell? 'Cause we just got an awesome one!
All in all I'm very pleased with the changes and love Warlocks have received this expansion the rotation is still complicated but simple enough to break down and learn and adapt to situations. And our output? Well I'm pleased enough with being up there on the top end of raid recount!
Well done Blizzard, you gave me a reason to love my Warlock again!
In this post i'm going to discuss affliction as it has always been my ideal spec. As a foreword I'd just like to say that when I first logged into 5.0.4 I was a little overwhelmed at what I saw, most importantly where the hell was my shadowbolt that blizzard had forced me to use? After a short plough through my spell book I was even more confused all my spells had different names and where was my bane of doom? After frantically searching the screen for an answer I spied the core abilities tab. Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Malefic Grasp, Haunt and Drain Soul. What the heck is Malefic Grasp you might ask? Well it's a new shiny affliction only spell that deals damage while adding 50% of your DOTs damage on top for every tick while it's ticking. Haunt now increases your critical hit chance for its duration. Soul burn + Soul Swap applies all three dots in one hit. Demon Soul is now called Dark Soul: Misery which is an awesome buff that increases spell haste by 30% for 20 seconds (I hear a nerf bat coming, best enjoy it while we can!). Drain Soul should be used below 20% health on any opponent as it regenerates soul shards but also deals 200% damage and an additional 100% damage to your DOTs that are on the target, did anyone ask for an execute spell? 'Cause we just got an awesome one!
All in all I'm very pleased with the changes and love Warlocks have received this expansion the rotation is still complicated but simple enough to break down and learn and adapt to situations. And our output? Well I'm pleased enough with being up there on the top end of raid recount!
Well done Blizzard, you gave me a reason to love my Warlock again!
Friday, 7 September 2012
Why I Chose to Play A Warlock.
Let's face it, Warlocks are cool! We're not self righteous, zealous, heroic, morally strong or particularly nice. What we are is ruthlessly efficient. THE anti-hero if you would. Bare in mind that this goes against most of the point of world of warcraft, to be the heroes that saved the world. We are the reclusive wielders of the dark forces that perpetuate the fabric of Azeroth. We're not in it for hero worship, we're in it because no one enslaves the world except us! We use our abilities for self gain at the expense of others. We summon and sacrifice demons, we infuse our very soul with the darkness, we manipulate the mind instilling fear into our opponents. We care little for the elements, banishing them as we see fit, we enslave lesser demons and on top of that we throw shadow and fire at our enemies. We suck the life and soul from our enemies to empower ourselves and we sacrifice our own life force to replenish our dark magics. We are warlocks, the darkest force amongst your allies and with 5.0.4 we're back with more hurt than before.
Affliction:
Masters of inflicting damage over time, vampiric drains and all round malevolence.
Destruction:
Reckless fire slingers who just love to see things burn!
Demonology:
Master summoners of the lethal burning legion, using their dark forces against everything in our paths. And if summoning doesn't get the job done, we'll metamorphose and do it ourselves!
Welcome to the fold and experience Azeroth from a darker perspective.
This is why I chose to play a warlock, because deep down we all want to see the world burn, it's in our nature.
Affliction:
Masters of inflicting damage over time, vampiric drains and all round malevolence.
Destruction:
Reckless fire slingers who just love to see things burn!
Demonology:
Master summoners of the lethal burning legion, using their dark forces against everything in our paths. And if summoning doesn't get the job done, we'll metamorphose and do it ourselves!
Welcome to the fold and experience Azeroth from a darker perspective.
This is why I chose to play a warlock, because deep down we all want to see the world burn, it's in our nature.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
New deck!
So, it's been a while since I posted something! To tell the truth I've simply been a bit carried away with levelling a new goblin priest in World of Warcraft! Currently level 70 my hopes at having 85, and all professions maxed out for Mists of Pandaria!
Well enough of my priest! Last couple of weeks has been a bit of a slow one for magic as Chris' nan had been ill we had to do a lot of rescheduling. I have in the mean time got my hands on a Horde deck, which I must say is pretty nasty! Proved by our test run of playing against it! Deck ideas too haven't been too forthcoming for me. Chris had a butchers through some of my collection and suggested a sacrifice deck, which I'm currently working on!
What I have put together is a different deck, I was looking through my artifacts and multi-colours and I thought 'why not?' you can have a look at the deck list below. Bare in mind however it's built out of what I had available in approximately half hour! There's not a lot of land but plenty of mana producing artifacts!
I've tried to balance what I had, tell me what you think, play testing will have to wait til next magic night!
Full spectrum.
3 Island
3 Mountain
5 Forest
3 Plains
4 Swamp
18 lands
1 Perilous Myr
1 Autochthon Wurm
1 Valeron Outlander
2 Thundering Tanadon
1 Nacatl Outlander
2 Izzet Chronarch
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Gloryscale Viashino
2 Assault Zeppelid
12 creatures
2 Azorius Signet
3 Trace of Abundance
1 Leap of Flame
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Ring of Evos Isle
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Blinkmoth Urn
2 Obelisk of Esper
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Trepanation Blade
2 Sangrite Backlash
1 Golem's Heart
1 Pain Magnification
1 Vengeful Rebirth
2 Slave of Bolas
2 Simic Signet
4 Obelisk of Grixis
2 Obelisk of Jund
30 other spells
As you can see its a work in progress, anyone have any ideas?
Well that's it for now I guess, and I'll post an update for my sacrifice deck at some point!
Well enough of my priest! Last couple of weeks has been a bit of a slow one for magic as Chris' nan had been ill we had to do a lot of rescheduling. I have in the mean time got my hands on a Horde deck, which I must say is pretty nasty! Proved by our test run of playing against it! Deck ideas too haven't been too forthcoming for me. Chris had a butchers through some of my collection and suggested a sacrifice deck, which I'm currently working on!
What I have put together is a different deck, I was looking through my artifacts and multi-colours and I thought 'why not?' you can have a look at the deck list below. Bare in mind however it's built out of what I had available in approximately half hour! There's not a lot of land but plenty of mana producing artifacts!
I've tried to balance what I had, tell me what you think, play testing will have to wait til next magic night!
Full spectrum.
3 Island
3 Mountain
5 Forest
3 Plains
4 Swamp
18 lands
1 Perilous Myr
1 Autochthon Wurm
1 Valeron Outlander
2 Thundering Tanadon
1 Nacatl Outlander
2 Izzet Chronarch
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Gloryscale Viashino
2 Assault Zeppelid
12 creatures
2 Azorius Signet
3 Trace of Abundance
1 Leap of Flame
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Ring of Evos Isle
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Blinkmoth Urn
2 Obelisk of Esper
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Trepanation Blade
2 Sangrite Backlash
1 Golem's Heart
1 Pain Magnification
1 Vengeful Rebirth
2 Slave of Bolas
2 Simic Signet
4 Obelisk of Grixis
2 Obelisk of Jund
30 other spells
As you can see its a work in progress, anyone have any ideas?
Well that's it for now I guess, and I'll post an update for my sacrifice deck at some point!
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Horde Rules!
So during my trawling through the Internet I came across a multiplayer magic format called 'Horde'. It's a format that essentially pits up to four players against a 100 card horde deck. This format is something that I can't wait to try! So I think I'll pose it to my group as a format we should try, in the meantime i'll build a deck or two for the format!
In Brief:
Horde Magic is a multiplayer variant where all players work together as "Survivors" to defeat an opposing "Horde" deck.
Rules Rundown:
There's a lot going on in Horde Magic. We'll break it down into Game Play, Player, and Horde rules.
Game Play Rules:
The objective is for the allied team to survive, and eliminate, the Horde. Survivors win when the Horde deck has no cards remaining in its library, no cards in hand, and controls no creatures.
If the Survivors deal damage to the Horde, that number of cards are put from the top of the Horde's deck into its graveyard.
Player Rules:
Up to four players total, and each player brings his or her own deck.
All players share their turns, a la Two-Headed Giant, and contribute 20 life to the starting total (one player is 20, four players is 80).
The Survivors takes the first three turns, then alternate with the Horde.
Horde Rules:
The Horde is a hundred-card deck. (Take away a random twenty-five cards for each Survivor less than four on the team; three players face seventy-five cards, two players face fifty.)
The Horde is both token cards as well as regular Magic cards; the standard is fifty-five 2/2 Zombie tokens, five 5/5 Zombie Giant tokens (from Zendikar), and forty assorted Zombies and other spells.
The Horde's turns start by revealing the top card of the library. If it's a creature token, it is set aside. This process repeats until a nontoken spell is revealed. Then, all of the creature tokens are cast (as a Zombie creature spell that costs ). Finally, the revealed spell is cast.
The Horde will only cast spells once per turn, at the start of the turn. (Anything that is returned to the Horde's hand remains there until the next turn, when it is then cast after the revealed spell for that turn.)
The horde deck has any amount of mana needed and will always pay additional costs required (such as from Sphere of Resistance; Propaganda; and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs).
All creatures the Horde controls have haste and must attack each turn if able.
If there is a choice presented for the Horde, such as when a Survivor casts Fact or Fiction, the choice is made randomly.
Tokens put into the graveyard, returned to the Horde's hand, or exiled, disappear from the game as per normal token rules.
Looking over the rules it'd be easy to adjust to make a game that pits you against a horde that is not necessarily a zombie horde, perhaps a siege style gameplay would be interesting!
Perhaps I'll go away and work out the details!
In Brief:
Horde Magic is a multiplayer variant where all players work together as "Survivors" to defeat an opposing "Horde" deck.
Rules Rundown:
There's a lot going on in Horde Magic. We'll break it down into Game Play, Player, and Horde rules.
Game Play Rules:
The objective is for the allied team to survive, and eliminate, the Horde. Survivors win when the Horde deck has no cards remaining in its library, no cards in hand, and controls no creatures.
If the Survivors deal damage to the Horde, that number of cards are put from the top of the Horde's deck into its graveyard.
Player Rules:
Up to four players total, and each player brings his or her own deck.
All players share their turns, a la Two-Headed Giant, and contribute 20 life to the starting total (one player is 20, four players is 80).
The Survivors takes the first three turns, then alternate with the Horde.
Horde Rules:
The Horde is a hundred-card deck. (Take away a random twenty-five cards for each Survivor less than four on the team; three players face seventy-five cards, two players face fifty.)
The Horde is both token cards as well as regular Magic cards; the standard is fifty-five 2/2 Zombie tokens, five 5/5 Zombie Giant tokens (from Zendikar), and forty assorted Zombies and other spells.
The Horde's turns start by revealing the top card of the library. If it's a creature token, it is set aside. This process repeats until a nontoken spell is revealed. Then, all of the creature tokens are cast (as a Zombie creature spell that costs ). Finally, the revealed spell is cast.
The Horde will only cast spells once per turn, at the start of the turn. (Anything that is returned to the Horde's hand remains there until the next turn, when it is then cast after the revealed spell for that turn.)
The horde deck has any amount of mana needed and will always pay additional costs required (such as from Sphere of Resistance; Propaganda; and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs).
All creatures the Horde controls have haste and must attack each turn if able.
If there is a choice presented for the Horde, such as when a Survivor casts Fact or Fiction, the choice is made randomly.
Tokens put into the graveyard, returned to the Horde's hand, or exiled, disappear from the game as per normal token rules.
Looking over the rules it'd be easy to adjust to make a game that pits you against a horde that is not necessarily a zombie horde, perhaps a siege style gameplay would be interesting!
Perhaps I'll go away and work out the details!
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Deck Builder's Toolkit 2012 Part 2
Well the second toolkit arrived today! And was pretty much very similar in content to the first, while I expected this I was expecting a bit more variety in the way of colour distribution, however black was pretty dominant, and I have plenty of black cards as is!
I did receive one foil from a booster that will sit nicely in my sulfurion deck. I will not mention the cards name at this time as I wouldn't want to give any opponents a heads up to the addition!
All in all the pair of toolkits were indeed a boost to my collection especially in the way of land as I now have enough for a few decks! I did get a few interesting soldiers amongst the cards which I will go through and am thinking that it's where my next lies!
Down to rating the product! I give it an 8/10 simply for its utility, however I would not say it would be suitable for making a strong focused deck!
I did receive one foil from a booster that will sit nicely in my sulfurion deck. I will not mention the cards name at this time as I wouldn't want to give any opponents a heads up to the addition!
All in all the pair of toolkits were indeed a boost to my collection especially in the way of land as I now have enough for a few decks! I did get a few interesting soldiers amongst the cards which I will go through and am thinking that it's where my next lies!
Down to rating the product! I give it an 8/10 simply for its utility, however I would not say it would be suitable for making a strong focused deck!
Sunday, 15 July 2012
RNG Hates Me!
You guessed it from the title of my blog, Tempest of Chaos didn't drop from Archimonde! Never mind I suppose, there's always next week. Though I must say I quite dislike the Battle for Mount Hyjall, too much running and not enough pew pewwing!
It was a fairly nice run to be fair, all bosses were downed in double quick time! Just the trash waves that were a bit boring! Though now more than ever do I want to get my tier 5 transmog gear.
Not really much to talk about this raid, was pretty much straightforward, the only drop I did receive was swiftly sold on the ah, probably for disenchanting. After all it was only a green item!
My main focus lately has been levelling enchanting and jewelcrafting, both professions are sitting at 425 and above! Not bad for a day and a half of levelling! Jewelcrafting is sitting nearer 500 skill points, and by far the easier to level! I only really wanted this combo for the shuffles that go with it! That and the ring enchants!
That's it for now! Though today I'm taking my little boy to the museum, so perhaps I'll make an entry on that next!
It was a fairly nice run to be fair, all bosses were downed in double quick time! Just the trash waves that were a bit boring! Though now more than ever do I want to get my tier 5 transmog gear.
Not really much to talk about this raid, was pretty much straightforward, the only drop I did receive was swiftly sold on the ah, probably for disenchanting. After all it was only a green item!
My main focus lately has been levelling enchanting and jewelcrafting, both professions are sitting at 425 and above! Not bad for a day and a half of levelling! Jewelcrafting is sitting nearer 500 skill points, and by far the easier to level! I only really wanted this combo for the shuffles that go with it! That and the ring enchants!
That's it for now! Though today I'm taking my little boy to the museum, so perhaps I'll make an entry on that next!
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